Have spent 2 hours now with the Wii game.
My impressions so far:
+ Interface and controls are *perfect*.
There's a lot of visual feedback in the HUD elements, animating icons, logical button art..etc.
Dragging some bars is a bit too sensitive with the pointer (we're talking one pixel affecting a ton +/- in wares) but you can use the - and + buttons for fine adjustment.
You speedily shift between different islands, pop down buildings, sell stuff, explore without giving a thought about the controls. It's a lot of fun.
+ Graphics is definitely in the upper echelon Wii wise.
Never a dip in the framerate, everything is colorful and animates comparably to any Maxis (Sims/Spore) game.
+ Most surprising quality is probably the voicework and sound. The 'story' itself so far is basic (disguised tutorial if you will. Though I have only finished 2 of 9 or so chapters) but the characters themselves are well acted and there is some witty commentary. The art is well done, everyone in realistic proportions but with cartoony appearances (they animate and talk in small windows most of the time). Between chapters and sub goals within chapters there's fmw cutscenes in still-drawn images.
- I actually encountered a game breaking bug on chapter 2. You are supposed to pick up a treasure and I did this really quickly and delivered it but at the same time some other sub objective happened. After dealing with that, it went back to asking me to find the treasure again but having already collected it there was nothing I could do. Reverted back to a older save within the same chapter (you can save at any time).
My expectations were definitely met after having read all the reviews and whatched a good amount of videos. It's very polished design.